OTHER VIEWS. THE READERS HAVE THEIR SAY.

. . . On the other hand

November 25, 2006|By Dan Kascher.

ELGIN — Michigan played a wonderful game against Ohio State and clearly established themselves as the second-best team in the nation. They have a Heisman candidate at running back, a solid quarterback, a great receiver and one of the top two or three defenses in the country. This certainly adds up to a rematch with the Buckeyes for the national championship in Arizona on Jan. 8th, right?

Wrong! Sorry, Wolverine fans, but this has nothing to do with how good your team is. As exciting of a game as it would be, and despite the fact that a billion people would watch it, it just would not be fair to the Buckeyes. They played you, they beat you, end of story. They should not have to go out and beat you again in order to win the championship. If there was a third game set up in case the first two were split, we have a different story, but there's not. Maybe, just maybe, if last week's game was played in September I could understand the demand for a rematch, but two games in a row against the same team? No way!

As a Notre Dame fan, I see the Irish beating USC, Arkansas beating Florida, and Notre Dame playing Ohio State in the championship game. You may not like it, but that matchup would pit the top two Heisman contenders against one another as well as be a rematch of last season's Fiesta Bowl. That would be a ratings bonanza!

And Michigan fans, remember this. In 1993 Notre Dame wound up second to Florida State in the rankings despite both teams having only one loss and Notre Dame having beaten Florida State. Somehow, I don't think you guys were crying for us back then. Just because you beat a team doesn't mean you finish ahead of them.